Author:
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: January 22, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=86368
One counts among the seniormost politicians
in Kashmir, another claimed to have given up the gun. Yet Abdul Aziz Zargar
and Abdul Wahid Dar are only two of the mainstream politicians being investigated
for their terror connections. Our Srinagar bureau profiles the system's weakest
links
GUL RAFIQUE, 55
CREDENTIALS: National Conference leader; former member, J&K Legislative
Assembly
CHARGE: Escorting a militant commander in his official vehicle under police
protection from southern Kashmir to Amritsar, helping him cross the border
and escape to Pakistan
PRIOR to being elected to the Assembly, Rafique
was associated with an environmental NGO called Eco Friends. His work for
the NGO, say the police, brought him in contact with one Farooq Ahmad Bhat
of Gur, Bijbehara. Ahmad had links with militants and was allegedly responsible
for drawing Rafique into the nexus.
The connection with Bhat was cemented when
Rafique took him on as his personal secretary after winning the assembly elections
from Shalibug in 1996 on an NC ticket. Ironically, before he joined the Assembly,
Rafique had escaped a militant attack at Koimoh, in which his personal security
officer (PSO) was killed.
On May 2, 2005, say police sources, Rafique
left Srinagar to attend the wedding of a senior J&K bureaucrat's son in
Chandigarh. Hizbul commander Mohamamd Amin Baba allegedly boarded Rafique's
official car-which was also carrying Bhat-at Sangum on the Srinagar-Jammu
National Highway and travelled to Amritsar; Rafique and Bhat then went on
to Chandigarh for the wedding, which counted former CM and NC patron Farooq
Abdullah among the guests.
The episode came to light when the police
was investigating a mine-blast in Anantnag the same month. They picked up
one Javaid Ahmad in this connection and quizzed him about Hizbul commander
Baba, also a suspect in the case. ''He told us Baba had recently crossed over
to Pakistan via Amritsar. On further interrogation, Javaid revealed that Baba
had gone to Amritsar with Gul Rafique in his official vehicle,'' a police
officer said.
The police went on to arrest Bhat (under the
Public Safety Act), armed PSO Kewal Singh, driver Sham and finally claimed
to have cracked the case. Rafique, however, claimed he had no knowledge of
Baba's identity and had merely given him a lift after Bhat introduced him
as a friend who wanted a ride till Amritsar. That didn't cut much ice with
the police, who arrested Rafique in mid-May 2005.
CURRENT STATUS: Rafique is in custody, and
continues to be a member of the NC. ''He is under trial, and we cannot throw
him out until the charges against him are proven,'' says NC chief Omar Abdullah.
ABDUL AZIZ ZARGAR, 65
CREDENTIALS: J&K agriculture minister
CHARGE: Aiding and sheltering militants as they planned Akshardham attack
AMONG the seniormost Kashmiri politicians-he
was part of the Quit Kashmir movement against the Dogra rule, a member of
J&K's Constituent Assembly and a signatory to the Constitution of Jammu
and Kashmir-Zargar's impeccable reputation took a beating during the interrogation
of a motor mechanic from Meerut in September 2003.
Apart from confessing to escorting two fidayeens
from Anantnag to Ahmedabad for the September 24, 2002, attack on Akshardham,
Chand Khan, the mechanic, told the police that he met militant commander Abdullah
Mansoor (who died in an encounter before Khan was picked up), and footsoldiers
Sani and Zubair at Zargar's ancestral house in Manzgam village in Kulgam tehsil.
This was also where he met Abdullah and Shakeel-whom he was to escort to Gujarat-and
where he smuggled weapons into a car, according to his interrogation report.
Zargar resigned as minister on September 12,
2003, but stridently denied any involvement, claiming he had had no connection
with Manzgam for years and was ignorant of any militant activity in his house.
But Khan told the police about much more than
the planning of the Akshardham attack. According to the interrogation report,
he described how militants backed Zargar by attacking Sakina Itoo-his rival
NC candidate-during the 2002 Assembly polls. The Akshardham plans, in fact,
coincided with the election campaign.
It later appeared that the police themselves
tried to keep the minister's name out of the interrogation report: Zargar's
name was mentioned as Zaheer, rather than Aziz; he was also described as an
MLA, rather than a senior cabinet minister.
Soon after these allegations became public,
Itoo told The Indian Express, ''I've been crying myself hoarse about Zargar's
militant links... It's rubbish that he never visits his Manzgam house: His
sons and daughters all live there. Even his wife lived there till he became
minister.''
CURRENT STATUS: Zargar continues to be a minister
in the Ghulam Nabi Azad cabinet: His resignation was not accepted by then
CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed (after a lifetime in the Congress, Zargar became
one of the founding members of Sayeed's People's Democratic Party). After
Chand Khan was shipped off to Gujarat in connection with the Akshardham investigations,
Zargar's alleged militant links quietly slipped out of public memory.
ABDUL WAHID DAR, 34
CREDENTIALS: PDP municipal councillor
CHARGE: Leading a Lashkar module responsible for several fidayeen attacks
in Srinagar in association with a Congress leader and the husband of a Congress
councillor
INVESTIGATIONS of militant networks in the
Harwan-Zakura area in the outskirts of Srinagar threw up the name of Dar,
the PDP councillor from Zakura, who had left the Harkat-ul-Ansar to join mainstream
politics. Police sources say a seized mobile phone indicated Dar was familiar
with the militants; thereafter, they laid a trap and confirmed Dar's involvement
in early January this year.
''During interrogation, Dar told us he had
planned a fidayeen attack on August 15 last year to target then Chief Minister
Mufti Mohamamd Sayeed,'' IGP Kashmir K Rajendra says. ''In fact, he had even
taken the fidayeens on an elaborate recce of Bakshi stadium (the site of the
state celebrations) in an official car and it was sheer luck that they couldn't
enter the stadium on the actual day.''
Sources say the official car the militants
were using got stuck in a traffic jam and failed to make it to the stadium
on time.
Rajendra says the councillor was involved
in several other fidayeen attacks as well. ''He escorted fidayeens to Ganderbal
when Muftisahib was supposed to be visiting. Muftisahib's schedule changed
at the last minute, that's how the attack was aborted,'' he says.
Of Dar's two associates, the husband of the
Congress councillor is identified as Mohammad Maqbool. The police are reluctant
to reveal the name of the Congress leader, who is absconding. ''But we know
these two men (of the PDP and the Congress) were leading two separate modules
of fidayeens,'' the IGP says.
Sources reveal that the police have also discovered
a Delhi bank account operated by a Dar-associate Kashmiri Hindu, which was
used to funnel funds to fidayeens. ''The account had huge transactions and
there were lakhs of rupees in it when it was exposed,'' says a police officer.
Rajendra says the account has now been frozen.
Perhaps more than the politician-terror link
exposed in the Dar case, it is the ''in-house'' character of the case that
is shocking. Dar's brother worked in Sayeed's residence; Dar himself was perceived
to be a loyal member of the PDP. In fact, soon after his name came up in the
police investigations, Dar reportedly rushed to Jammu and then to Delhi to
seek the help of the PDP top brass.
''He would meet people, go places as a political
political activist; there was no reason to suspect him,'' says a police officer.
''Can you imagine, he pretended to be a loyal member of the party. And he
was planning to assassinate the leader of his own party.''
CURRENT STATUS: Dar is in custody.
NISAR AHMAD DAHL, 42
CREDENTIALS: Congress municipal councillor
CHARGE: Sheltering militants
THOUGH his cousin was known to be an active
militant, the police had no clue that Dahl had any links with militancy till
the police and security forces killed two militant commanders at his Shopian
residence on January 17.
The class VIII dropout, known to be close
to be a top Congress politician from south Kashmir and involved in ''illicit
trade'', came under the police scanner after he began to be spotted moving
around Shopian without any security after being elected municipal councillor
last year. The police also noted his lack of interest in civic works and his
abysmal attendance in municipal meetings.
They labelled him an OGW (overground worker),
but his Congress connections kept him out of the police net.
Till Tuesday evening, when a joint ops team
of the Special Operations Group of the police and the 44 Rashtriya Rifles
raided Dahl's residence on specific information. As the militants hiding in
the house refused to surrender, a fierce gun battle ensued; eventually, the
house was blasted. When the dust settled, two militant commanders-identified
by the army as Bilal Ahmad Sheikh aka Saifullah and Shabir Ahmad Najar aka
Abu Talha-lay dead.
According to defence spokesman Lt Col V K
Batra, Saifullah was the district commander of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen while
his accomplice Talha was a battalion commander. ''Saifullah was a frequent
visitor to the house (of the councillor),'' he says. ''He was in constant
touch with the councillor's family. We had information that his (councillor's)
house was used by the militants.''
CURRENT STATUS: Dahl is currently absconding.
